Once upon a time, Hollywood was the Wild West, with almost any subject up for grabs. Well, that didn't sit well with certain people, which led to the industry policing its own movies. This is part one of the story of the Hays Code, the Motion Picture Production Code that censored American film for more than thirty years. From the silent-era scandals and pre-Code excess that sparked a moral panic, to political fixer Will Hays, the Catholic Legion of Decency, and enforcer Joseph Breen, the "Production Code Czar" who decided what audiences were allowed to see.